10 car doors that made a big entrance

From gullwings to scissors, these are top of the portals

A door is just a door, right? Far from it. Because although they might serve a singular purpose, not all doors were created equal.

While a standard panel is unlikely to set your world alight, the greatest doors in motoring are works of true design beauty, doing far more than merely granting entry to the cabin.

Plenty of oddball efforts have adorned concept cars over the years, but what we’re concerned with here is those that have made it on to production cars.

From panels that rise as wings to sheets that scythe upwards like scissors, these glorious gateways redefine what it means to be a door. Even if that’s sometimes been at the expense of practicality.

10. BMW Isetta

It’s not often you see a handle on the nose of a motor but, with space at an absolute premium on the diminutive Isetta, the car’s entire face had to work as a hatch, swinging open – together with the steering wheel – to allow access to the bench inside. Handy.

Nor was it the only microcar to go wacky on the doors: the pint-sized Bond Bug doffed its whole cabin, while the Messerschmitt KR200 opted for a side-hinged bubble top.

9. BMW Z1

Next up is another BMW and one that ditched the hinges altogether. The first of the German marque’s Z-series roadsters, the plastic-bodied Z1 packed panels that slid halfway down into the high sills.

Just as the short-lived Kaiser Darrin’s doors had slid forward in the ’50s, so the Z1’s dropped vertically for easier access. Locks stopped them from rattling at speed, while the twin electric motors carried a “freewheel function” so they could be operated manually in an emergency.

8. Toyota Sera

Dihedral doors are usually the reserve of high-end exotica, but in the first half of the 1990s Toyota gifted bold butterfly numbers to buyers of its glassy Sera coupé.

Equipped with a modest 1.5-litre engine, the three-door machine was hardly the sportiest – but the curved panels were straight out of the supercar sketchbook, wrapping into a glassy canopy that bore more than a passing resemblance to the Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale further down this list.

What’s more, design doyen Gordon Murray reportedly cited the Sera as the inspiration for the McLaren F1’s own upward-hinged doors. Not bad for a ’90s hatchback.

7. Mazda RX-8

Rear-hinged doors have appeared on everything from the Fiat 600 Multipla to a raft of Rolls-Royce machines. None, though, were as unique as the “freestyle” doors seen on the Mazda RX-8.

Designed to allow easier passenger access while maintaining compact coupé proportions, the Noughties sports car packed a pair of rear-hinged doors that could only be used when the front set were open.

With no B-pillar, the arrangement created enough space to make the Japanese machine a genuine four-seater – and a quirky one at that.

6. Ferrari Enzo

A ballistic tribute to Ferrari’s founder, the limited-run Enzo was a world-beating hypercar packed with F1 tech and all sorts of angles. So it could hardly have plain old doors, could it?

No, the limited-run machine – built between 2002 and 2004 – packed huge butterfly doors that incorporated essentially the entire side panel of the car, right down to the sill. The result? With the doors raised, it bore a strong resemblance to a frilled-neck lizard.

5. Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale

A slice of pure space-age beauty, Alfa’s streamlined 33 Stradale was a roadgoing version of the marque’s Tipo 33 prototype – and it was an absolute stunner.

Just 18 were made, which pushes the definition of ‘production’, but it deserves its place in this list for those gorgeous butterfly doors: smooth, seamless and topped by single-piece windows that beautifully framed the windscreen and canopy, it was a low-slung lesson in how doors should be done.

Notably, a select clutch of Stradales were bodied by Italian coachbuilders, including the Gandini-designed Carabo – complete with pre-Countach scissor doors – and the gullwing 33/2 Coupé Speciale.

4. Lamborghini Countach

Speaking of the Countach, Lamborghini’s Gandini-penned wedge of ’70s greatness was the first production car to pack arresting scissor doors, following their appearance on the aforementioned Carabo concept.

Where butterfly doors move up and out, scissor doors hinge vertically from the bottom of the A-pillar, giving the impression that they’re floating.

As with much of the rest of the Countach, they were hardly the most practical choice – but who cares about practicality when you’re entering a wild V12 speed machine?

3. DeLorean DMC-12

Little about the iconic DMC-12 went with the grain – from its stainless-steel body panels to its tumultuous production run. And it was a similar story with the doors.

Designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro, the DeLorean machine carried distinctive gullwing numbers – aping the Mercedes-Benz 300SL and the calamitous Bricklin SV-1 before it.

Famously heavy, the doors were attached to torsion bars and gas struts to help open and support their weight, while red and orange lights on the edge were presumably fitted for the benefit of low-flying aircraft.

2. McLaren F1

They’ve already been mentioned, but for sheer showstopping drama there’s little that can beat the butterfly doors on the seminal McLaren F1.

The fastest production car of its era, the 618bhp sports car was jam-packed with cutting-edge technology, so it was only fair that designer Gordon Murray give it doors to match – and the McLaren’s dihedral panels were quite something to behold, especially at full peacock-rivalling height.

1. Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwing

What else could it be but the Gullwing? A silver-skinned stunner of pure ’50s performance, the 300SL changed the game when it came to autobahn cruising – and became an instant style icon to boot.

Built around a tubular frame, the 150mph machine’s side sills were too high for standard doors, so the German marque had to do something radical: invent the gullwing door. Lifting outwards and up above the car, the doors seem to soar in salute – and the pose makes for a properly striking silhouette (even if the sills mean that entering the cabin remains a challenge). 

Functional, remarkable and truly unique, the Gullwing’s gullwings are simply the greatest production car doors.

Honourable mention: De Tomaso Mangusta

No, they’re not strictly doors – but the De Tomaso Mangusta still deserves a mention for its own wing-like panels.

Rather than granting access to the seats inside this Giugiaro-styled sports car, they act as engine covers, flanking a meaty V8 at the rear and hinging at the middle to lift almost the entire rear half of the shell high into the air.

Which, as engine covers go, makes for a pretty distinctive sight.